Bridgeport school budget online

Updated 8:02 am, Monday, November 19, 2012

Mayor Bill Finch has hired a 27-year-old Joshua Thompson as his new deputy chief administrative officer for education and youth policy. He will earn $102,000 as an at-will employee of the mayor. Thompson was photographed in the mayor's office in Bridgeport, Conn. on Friday Aug. 10, 2012.

Mayor Bill Finch has hired a 27-year-old Joshua Thompson as his new deputy chief administrative officer for education and youth policy. He will earn $102,000 as an at-will employee of the mayor. Thompson was

BRIDGEPORT -- Last November, the city school board was essentially working without a budget, using its 2010-11 spending plan as a starting point for making cuts that would seal a multimillion-dollar deficit.

This year, there is not only an approved budget -- but it's available to the public online and is potentially balanced.

John Marshall Lee, a community fiscal watchdog, was impressed by the quarterly report and the fact that taxpayers can simply go online and see detailed information about the troubled district's finances.

"It gives us more information, I think, than we have ever seen before," Lee said, citing data on grants and the number of district employees as examples.

The budget shows an 11.5 percent increase in money for principals' salaries to $9.2 million, and a 23 percent reduction for directors and supervisors salaries amounting to $703,284.

Included in the increase for principals is a 1 percent contractual raise for administrators, a 20 percent hike in health insurance, replacement of two temporary per diem principals with full-time principals, and three new assistant principals, including one whose salary was covered last year by a grant, said Marlene Siegel, district finance director.

There's also $150,000 in extra supervisory help at the district's four magnet schools, and $75,000 in salary overlap for three principals who were replaced, Siegel said.

The district last week posted a detailed financial report on its website that shows the $225.4 million operating budget as it was approved, the grants budget and where the district is financially as of Oct. 31.

According to the report, the district is projecting a balanced budget, assuming the state comes through with a promised $4.4 million increase in Education Cost Sharing funds and the city contributes the $5 million it promised the district.

But it remains unclear when the city money will come through.

Joshua Thompson, Mayor Bill Finch's education liaison, said the funds have been allocated but have yet to be released by the City Council. But they will be before the fiscal year is over, Thompson said.

The state money is on hold until the state Department of Education approves the Alliance District plan submitted by local school officials. Bridgeport is one of 30 low-performing districts that need to tie new state money to efforts to improve student achievement. All but a handful have been approved.

For now, the $9.4 million shortfall shows up in the teacher salary account.

The budget also shows how $52 million in grant money is being spent, including federal Title One and IDEA special education grants.

According to the budget, all literacy and math coaches for the district are being funded out of grants.

Conversely, at least one assistant principal previously covered under a federal grant had to be shifted to the general budget this year when the federal School Improvement Grant payment for that position expired.